Encyclopedia of Health and Medicine

LIFESTYLE VARIABLES:
SMOKING AND OBESITY
The two lifestyle variables that have emerged in recent years as the key causes of preventable disease are smoking and
OBESITY. Each represents a complex mingling of contributory factors, many within the reach of individual control.
These variables span health-care specialties; practitioners in nearly all fields of medicine address health issues that
derive from either or both. Between them, smoking and obesity account for nearly all preventable HEART disease and
many types of cancer.
This section, “Lifestyle Variables: Smoking and
Obesity,” presents an overview discussion of
smoking and obesity as they contribute to health
conditions. The entries in this section focus on the
health consequences of smoking and obesity,
including weight management topics. The section
“Nutrition and Diet” features an overview discussion
and entries that focus on the broad context of
nutrition and diet in health and the development
of health conditions. Similarly the section “Fitness:
Exercise and Health” features an overview
discussion and entries that focus on the broad
context of physical activity in health and the
development of health conditions.
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Lifestyle and Smoking
Cigarette smoking attained social status in the
1920s when soldiers returning from World War I
brought their habit home with them. Cigarette
smoking became fashionable across social strata, a
mark of sophistication and success. But as early as
the 1940s doctors recognized that many of their
patients who had heart disease or lung disease,
including LUNG CANCER, were smokers. Numerous
research studies soon confirmed and detailed the
specific health risks of smoking, which are extensive.
In 1964 the US Surgeon General released the
landmark report, Smoking and Health: Report of the
Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public
Health Service, which presented in fairly stark
detail the known and suspected health consequences
of cigarette smoking. The report’s publication
was a wake-up call for doctors as well as
the general public, nearly 45 percent of whom
were smokers.
Over the next 40 years concerted education
efforts resulted in cutting the number of smokers
nearly in half. However, the health consequences
of smoking skyrocketed. CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
(CVD) became the leading cause of death, and cigarette
smoking was identified as the leading cause
of CVD. Lung cancer became the leading cause of
death from cancer, and cigarette smoking was
identified as the leading cause of lung cancer.
Over the decades, research unequivocally
linked cigarette smoking with oral cancer, laryngeal
cancer, ESOPHAGEAL CANCER, PANCREATIC CANCER,
BLADDER CANCER, PROSTATE CANCER, RENAL CANCER,
STOMACH CANCER, and LIVER CANCER. Cigarette
smoking proved responsible for most nonallergic
ASTHMA, CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE
(COPD), and chronic BRONCHITIS. Researchers also
affirmed that ENVIRONMENTAL CIGARETTE SMOKE (secondhand
smoke) caused these same health conditions
in nonsmokers and was also responsible for
most chronic upper respiratory conditions in children.
By the early 2000s many cities in the United
States outlawed cigarette smoking in public buildings
and restaurants went smoke-free or established
separate dining areas for smokers and
nonsmokers. Hospitals also banned smoking. By